In The Rain
by Remy Alvera
Summary: They all left her, one by one, she was alone. Sakura Haruno took her future and her fate into her own hands when she decided on how to go on - now team less and without a hope - she had two choices, stay in the Village she grew up in and stay useless, or leave. No notes or apologizes were left, just an empty room, and a headband. AU [Pairing Pending]
1. Preference: The Rain

**Intro: **They all left her, one by one, she was alone. Sakura Haruno took her future and her fate into her own hands when she decided on how to go on - now team less and without a hope - she had two choices, stay in the Village she grew up in and stay useless, or leave. No notes or apologizes were left, just an empty room, and a headband. Now Sakura will travel for nearly five years across the Ninja Wolrd, and she will be anything but that little girl who left heartbroken and weak.

_AU _

_[Pairing Pending]_

**Disclaimer | I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters, I only own my own OC's and plot line.**

R&R

* * *

Preference: The Rain

It was raining.

The loud claps of thunder and lightning that seemed to split open the sky were, surprisingly, comforting to the young girl, as she stood overlooking the Village she had called her home for so long. She was suddenly worried this was no longer the case.

Her first love was gone; he left in the dark of the night, playing into an evil mans awaiting hands.

Her best friend was gone too, having left to go train for Kami only knows how long.

She was alone. They had all left her, and now here she stood, soaked and staring up at the dark sky, hands clasped, praying for some way for the people she held dearest to her heart to return to her.

So this was pain.

The rosette hadn't experienced much true pain in her life, but the gaping hole that had been ripped into her chest was quickly changing her thought process. She felt empty, and full of anger. They had both left her out of everything, like she wasn't even a member of Team 7, like she wasn't important.

Something inside the young girl snapped.

Everyone around her was changing, leaving, moving, and yet she stood where she was, frozen in time, without the chance of ever getting stronger. What hope did she have to ever reach the limit her Team-Mates were at? What could she possibly do? Now that her Sensei was the Hokage of The Hidden Leaf Village, Sakura Haruno didn't have Team 7 at all.

_This feeling…_

She found herself walking home through the rain. Once inside Sakura moved silently, sneaking past her father and mother in the kitchen, and slipping into her bedroom. There she stood, silently going over her options, there were only two.

Stay in the Village, alone, and do nothing, or leave.

The second choice seemed so much more harsh than the first, it was true that she had other people here in the village, friends and her parents, but that wasn't enough, Sakura wanted to become stronger, so when she faced her team mates again one day, she wouldn't be in their shadows. Like Sasuke, Sakura couldn't grow stronger here, in this Village.

She had already made her choice.

Silently and quickly, Sakura packed her tan bag, filling it was three sets of clothes, an extra pair of Ninja Sandals, two blank scrolls, one summoning scroll, and all of the money she had saved up. She waited until her parents went to sleep before she raided the kitchen, adding some dry beef, two apples, half a loaf of bread, and two bottles of water to her pack.

She swept back into her room to change into her sleeveless pink dress; however the young girl pulled a cloak on over it and over her pack. Sakura was about to jump from her window, but she hesitated.

Her headband…she reached up and brushed her fingers across the cold metal and leaf engraving a frown marring her features. If she kept it, it would be easy for anyone to pick her out on the road or in other Villages, and she couldn't just put a slash through it, she hopped to return some day.

She pulled at the material holding the headband up, and let it fall to the ground with a light clang and dull thud. She was gone before it touched the ground.


	2. Chapter One: In The Days That Follow

**Intro: **They all left her, one by one, she was alone. Sakura Haruno took her future and her fate into her own hands when she decided on how to go on - now team less and without a hope - she had two choices, stay in the Village she grew up in and stay useless, or leave. No notes or apologizes were left, just an empty room, and a headband. Now Sakura will travel for nearly five years across the Ninja World, and she will be anything but that little girl who left heartbroken and weak.

_AU_

_[Pairing Pending]_

**Disclaimer | I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters, I only own my own OC's and plot line.**

R&R

* * *

Chapter One: The Days That Follow

Kakashi sat behind his desk, seemingly engrossed in paper work, however, no one knew he had carved out the large bingo book in front of him and a copy of Icha Icha Pooltime sat in the books shell. The old man giggled like a school girl, but slammed the book shut when the door to his front office swung open and banged loudly against the wall.

"Hokage-Sama!" An ANBU stormed in. Kakashi frowned.

"Ne, Ne, Dog-San, why are you interrupting my private hours?" The grey haired man sighed loudly. The ANBU went on as if he hadn't heard the elder speaking.

"Sakura Haruno is missing, Hokage-Sama." Kakashi's eyes snapped open and he froze, the fake smile he had once donned slipping off of his face – not that the other man could tell, since he wore a mask – before slowly standing up.

"Close the door." He commanded easily, standing and moving over the the other table that was stacked with papers, all of which were missions that had come in to the village, each stack ranking from D to S. He shuffled through the last pile before pulling out one paper.

The mission on the paper was vague and rather pointless; however, it had no estimated time of return.

"Go file this; as far as anyone else is concerned I gave this mission to Sakura Haruno last night as a last minute resort. I want her out of the Bingo books and off of any ANBU rosters, she is not to be hunted – she is merely on a long term mission." He gave the ANBU a pointed look before turning around the stare out the window. Kakashi didn't move till the door shut.

The woof of the window seal cracked beneath Kakashi's hands.

_Have I failed you, Sakura? _

He bowed his head. The least the former leader of Team 7 could do was let her go and find her own way, when her team mates had done so without even considering the pink haired girl.

Sakura jumped from tree branch to tree branch, chakra pulsing down her feet as she struggled to stay upright in the down pour. Her emotions were almost as bad as this storm, and she fought more than once to keep her knees from giving out.

She was slowly losing a pointless battle.

Thunder boomed over head, and the tree she had just landed on seemed to shake. Sakura lost her footing, and plummeted down to the wet mossy ground below.

_Damn it, what do I do?_

She groaned as she collided with the ground and mud splashed up everywhere, staining her tan cloak.

_I can do this._

Sakura grunted as she pushed herself up, ignoring the pain, she could feel tears burning her eyes.

_I __**can**__ do this!_

She stood up fully, leaning against a tree for support. The rain seemed to come down even harder than before. Sakura stumbled forward slowly, taking it one step at a time; she had traveled for three days straight, going on nothing but solider pills and some water.

She shouldn't have pushed herself so hard, but she wasn't sure if she was being tailed or not, and if they were behind her or not. If she was brought back to the Village Sakura would be branded a traitor and thrown in prison. Or worse.

So she kept moving.

_**Sakura,**_

She froze, her limbs locking up at the sound of _his_ voice, as it echoed all around her.

_**Sakura…**_

She fell to her knees on the ground, a scream ripping its way through her throat as she covered her ears – as if that'd help escape her mind.

_**Thank you.**_

She fell forward, her face hitting the ground as sobs shook her body.

Minutes turned into hours, and she just laid there, in the rain and in the mud, her tear stained face no longer burdened with tears, for they had dried up, all of them had fallen into the sullen earth and sunk in, marking the ground with unknown sorrows.

Somehow, the broken pink haired girl brought forth the strength to stand, and keep moving, even if her worst nightmare was playing nonstop relentlessly over and over again in her mind.

She moved on.

Soon, Sakura found herself out of the dense forest in near a small town. The rosette threw up a henge, so she no longer had her pink hair, but instead dark brown, and made her way into the town, keeping to the shadows until she slipped into the local Inn, where she bought a room and escaped to it for the night.

Once she was in her temporary room, Sakura relaxed and dropped her henge. She made a mental note to start meditating so she could raise her chakra reserves so she could keep up a twenty-four hour henge.

With a puff of air, Sakura peeled off her muddy cloak and threw it into the trash bin. She planned to buy some new clothes while she was here anyway, her current outfit gave too much away, and so did the other ones she had at the bottom of her pack.

After discarding her now ruined and useless clothes, Sakura hurried into the hot shower, working the kinks out of her limbs and washed all of the mud and rain water off of her person.

She let out a squeak of surprise as the water turned hot to cold.

"What the f-" She hurriedly fumbled with the handles, trying to turn the water off as soon as possible while trying not to fall on her ass. Sakura grumbled as she dried off, casting glares at the shower the whole time before whisking back into her room.

The rosette changed into a large t-shirt and a pair of shorts before climbing into the rickety bed, and passing out for the next two days.

When Sakura woke up at 3PM on the third day or her stay in the inn, she woke up confused and starving. She wondered why she was alone, because members of Team 7 always paired up when on a mission, and she wondered why she was so damn hungry.

It all came crashing down onto her.

Sakura Haruno, ex-member of Team 7, Missing-Nin.

She had defected from her Village, and ran for three days straight. She had abandoned her family and friends. She was worse than scum.

_But so are Naruto and Sasuke._ A small voice reminded her. _Team 7 is just full of scum I guess._

Sakura cringed and pushed herself out of the bed. After a fast shower - she didn't want to test her luck with the hot water - and a change into fresh clothes, the rosette headed out – she quickly cast her henge half way down the hallway, having forgotten – and set out to first get a hot meal, and then buy some new clothes.

If things went as planned, this would be the last stop she made in a town for awhile; she was going to get as far away from The Land of Fire as possible.

"How can I help you young lady?" An older man grinned at Sakura, but his smile slipped away at the sight of those eyes. They looked such a vibrant shade of green, and yet so hopeless, so dead. Those eyes made the man swallow, hard.

"I need new clothes." She replied, throwing a bag full of money onto the counter. The man gulped.

"Of course! Right this way." He lead her towards the back of the store, there the girls section was. Through small, it had decent materials. Sakura set to work.

She spent a good hour looking for something decent to wear, and in the end she decided on a red sleeveless shirt, with a fish net undershirt, a grey armored vest with matching elbow protectors, black shorts, black gloves with the fingers cut out, and black Ninja sandals.

Sakura was rather proud of her new outfit – and she didn't really mind that the red shirt didn't have her Clan symbol on it, after all her Clan was small and it would have been easy to pick her out.

The only problem was that her hair kept getting in her face.

The rosette made a noise of annoyance in the back of her throat before going towards the fabric section. She scanned over the many fabrics there, before hesitating. She stared for a long time at all of the choices she had, before choosing two strips of a red fabric that matched her shirt.

One for now, and of course an extra for later.

She quickly paid for everything and made way back to her rented room.

Sakura had been on the road for two weeks now, and she found that loneliness had followed her. Unless she was buying a room or some food, Sakura rarely spoke to anyone, the silence endearing in every way possible.

She grew tired of it.

The rosette had left so she could become stronger, and yet she was alone, she didn't know how to train herself – other than mediating, which she did every chance she got, and found that her Chakra reserves were already raising steadily – she couldn't help but wonder how hard it would be to find someone to actually train her.

She let out a sigh, jumping from tree to tree; the only noise was the wild life around her and the thumps she made on the bark with each jump.

**Next Chapter | **"_Tell me, would you kill?"_ She flinched back as if she had been hit, then shook her head. Of course she would kill. She was a Ninja.

"_Would you kill to prove your right?"_ Sakura flattered. "_To protect what you hold dear."_ Of course she would kill to protect those she loved. Who wouldn't?

"_Would you kill to become stronger?" _She let out a strangled gasp as pain shot through her body, and as she fell into the darkness, the answer lingered, unsaid, but known all the same.

"_Yes." _

**A/N | First chapter up~! Second chapter coming soon! Let me know what you all think, I love some good angst and I couldn't help myself. About her outfit, it took awhile to come up with, but I like how I pictured it. If anyone is interested in drawing up some fan art, go for it! ^_^**

**R&R **


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